By Mike Eichholtz, Nigel Goddard and Sandra Meinert

The Glorious Twelfth

This year’s Bernd Best Tournament will mark the twelfth consecutive time that this event takes place. The Wheelchair-Club Cologne (RSC) continues the tradition of hosting the largest and most influential wheelchair rugby tournament worldwide. Here the whole European rugby community, from the novice to the hardened international veteran, comes together for a week-end of fun and competition. No other regular event brings together even a remotely comparable quantity of wheelchair rugby aficionados into one place, representing a great opportunity to interchange on a personal and professional basis.

This twelfth anniversary has seen the tournament reach the magical threshold of fifty teams. The record number of more than 350 active participants from Germany and 12 other countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic) posed an enormous challenge to the organization team. In total, more than 700 people are involved with the tournament. The technical proceedings, food, hotel rooms, transport and the match-coordination need to be planed, organized, prepared and then maintained over the course of three days. Many volunteers work on as well as behind the scene, before, during and after the event, in order to guarantee a smooth tournament.

This year, the Bernd Best Tournament once again takes place under the patronage of Gerda Pleitgen, chairwoman of the federal Support Group for Disabled Sports in Germany, of Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as well as of the newly elected mayor of Cologne, Mr. Jürgen Roters.

Highlights off the Courts

The Bernd Best Tournament is a platform for competition and friendship between all people interested in wheelchair rugby. Best example for this is relaxed atmosphere are the legendary player-parties on Saturday, which have frequently been blamed for one or the other match result the following morning.

After the resounding success last year, BBT-2010 will once again feature physiotherapy-teams in all tournament venues.

Wheelchair rugby provides for griping entertainment. The finals for all leagues on Sunday after-noon will be commented live in order to explain the sport, its rules and tactical details to the external public.

For the final trophy ceremony all participants will gather in the sports-complex Holweide. Traditionally the WDR-Mouse will dance with Sammy, the Cologne Alligator mascot.

Food and drink are provided throughout the tournament and on Sunday there will be a large barbeque at the Holweide venue.

The Game

Wheelchair Rugby was developed 30 years ago in Canada, and given the name "Murderball". It is principally played by people with a spinal code lesion (tetraplegic) or with a similar disability. All players have limited movement in their legs and in their arms and hands. In a spectacular fusion of dodgems and chess the players try to score as many goals as possible by carrying a volleyball across the eight metre wide end line. To that end the players constantly crash into each other in their specially modified sports chairs, combining frantic action with sophisticated strategy, making this contest one of the most compelling in wheelchair sport.

Equality on the playing field is attained through use of a classifying system which compensates for physical limitations, with an extra allowance for women. Special emphasis at the Bernd Best Tournament is placed on the participation of female players, whose numbers increase every year.

A declared aim is the encouragement of new players, male and female, to contribute through sport to integration of disabled people and to foster a feeling of community in all wheelchair users. This policy originated with Bernd Best, one of the founders of the Rollstuhl-Club Köln.

An overview of the four Leagues

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Bernd Best Tournament is the competition on four performance levels.

As always, the main focus of the general public is on the Champions League, where the absolute elite of European wheelchair rugby will be competing. The Professional League and the Advanced League will see a colorful mix of national and international teams reaching for the cups. The Advanced League, being the interface between recreational and competitive sports, is the biggest of the four leagues, underlining the importance of the Bernd Best Tournament as a means of sighting new talents. The Basic League mainly features new teams and recreational players, which by no means implies that matches will be less hard fought than in the higher performance levels. This league is traditionally dominated by German teams.

A tradition in European Wheelchair Rugby celebrates a successful "kölsches" anniversary.
by Nigel Goddard and Mike Eichholtz, photos by Wolfgang Raaf

Three days of competition, 3 sports halls, 11 courts, 48 teams from 12 countries, 330 players, 60 referees, 120 games, 8378 goals, more than 200 willing helpers.. these statistics can only impart a small impression of the phenomenon that the BBT has become in the eleventh year of its existence. In addition, consider that the tournament's capacity had been reached this year and many teams interested in taking part had to be turned away. It has become apparent that the world's largest Wheelchair Rugby tournament is stretching itself to the limit. Not for nothing has the 40-strong management team from the organising club RSC Köln been working for four months on the planning and smooth running of this Mega-Event.

On Sunday 5th April at about 6pm, when the last trophy had been presented, all those involved could proudly congratulate each other that this year's BBT had again been an outstanding success.

In the highest classification, the Champions League, the Rebels from Karlsruhe could celebrate their third success following wins in 2006 and 2007. Athough during the group stage of the tournament they suffered a defeat at the hands of the European Giants, the Badeners could revise their tactics for their second clash in the final, most of all in the decisive second half. In the end they soundly beat the team of mixed European stars, strengthened by world class Canadian player Fabien Lavoie. The Rebels booked their place in the final in an enthralling semifinal against perennial rivals London, which was decided following a turnover against London in the key phase of the game and the Karlsruhe winning goal with four seconds remaining on the clock.

The Belgian Lions took third place in the battle of the Lions against London, similarly reversing a result against them in the group stage.
All the results and placings in the Champions League in detail

In an otherwise evenly matched Professional League the two dominant teams clashed in the final. The Flying Wheels from Austria, already victorious in the group phase against the Nacka Spiders from Sweden, staged a repeat performance in the final. After their second place last year the Flying Wheels also went back home with the winner's trophy. Last year's winners of the Professional Leaue, the Crashing Dream Team from the Netherlands, had to be content with fourth place after their defeat in the 3/4 final, third place being taken by Gaelic Warriors 1 from Ireland.
All the results and placings in the Professional League in detail

All the participants can now take a break from their exertions before the call to arms again in a few months for the organising team: Kick-Off Meeting for the Bernd-Best Tournament 2010, 26-28 March 2010. "Rugby or not to be"!